Use of a closed set questionnaire to measure primary and secondary effects of neurofibromatosis type 2
W J Neary1, V F Hillier, T Flute
1Child Development Centre, Warrington Primary Care Trust, Orford, Warrington, WA2 9HY, UK. wanda.neary@nhs.net
Objectives:
To identify the greatest difficulties reported by people affected by neurofibromatosis type 2, and to determine the relationship between the primary and secondary effects of the disease.
Design:
Postal questionnaire study.
Setting:
Questionnaire sent to subjects' home addresses.
Participants:
Eighty-seven adult patients under the care of the Manchester multidisciplinary neurofibromatosis type 2 team were invited to take part.
Main Outcome Measure:
The response rate was 62 out of 87 (71 per cent).
Results:
Respondents' answers emphasised that their greatest problem was deafness, which resulted in communication difficulties with social contacts, close partners, family and friends. Correlation coefficients indicated a relationship between general mood changes and hearing difficulties, social communication problems, balance difficulties and mobility problems. Self-confidence was significantly related only to social communication problems.
Conclusions:
The use of a closed set neurofibromatosis type 2 questionnaire identified hearing problems and subsequent communication difficulties as the main problems faced by people with this condition.
